Sonoma's Benziger Family Devotes Time To Small Wines

THE WINE COLUMN

July 8, 1999|By Anthony Dias Blue

When Bruno Benziger, already a successful wine importer in New York, decided to move his large family to California, he bought an estate near the picturesque town of Glen Ellen in southern Sonoma County. This area had lots of wine history going for it already.

Nearby - thanks to Agoston Haraszthy and General Vallejo - California's first commercial vineyards had been planted nearly 130 years before.

The year was 1980, and Bruno brought his five sons and two daughters to a lovely hillside ranch and named his winery after the town.

The winery specialized in small lots of premium varietals and large lots of simple but good-quality ``Proprietor's Reserve'' wines designed to sell in the $3 to $5 range. It also produced a more expensive line, M.G. Vallejo, meant to sell at the $5 to $7 range.

By 1992, sales had soared to 3 million cases, and, although the huge cash flow was pleasing and rewarding, the Benziger family wished they had more time to devote to their small line of estate-grown super-premium varietal wines.

Their problem was solved when giant Heublein (now a part of the world's largest beverage combine, Diagio) acquired the Glen Ellen and M.G. Vallejo brands in a multimillion dollar buy-out.

The Benziger family, now in the hands of the second generation after the death of Bruno in 1989, was left on its hillside to tend its vineyards and fine-tune its considerable catalog of premium varietals and proprietary blends. The Benziger Family Winery has been enormously successful in establishing the family name as a pillar of the Sonoma Valley wine community.

In addition to widely distributed popular varietals such as chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, Benziger has shown an ongoing interest in more obscure varietal styles of wines.

To showcase its efforts in this area, the family has developed the Imagery Series, bottlings of small lots of interesting, slightly eclectic wines. Each bottle showcases an original work of art by a contemporary artist.

I recently ventured to Glen Ellen and spent a spring afternoon with Chris Benziger, the youngest of the clan, tasting through the latest Benziger wines while heav- ing tennis balls for Goober, a portly chocolate lab, to retrieve enthusiastically.

- 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon, ``Ash Creek,'' Alexander Valley: Bright and tangy with amazing fruit and long, dense, memorable flavors. This is a spectacular wine that is great now but would probably benefit from some time in the cellar; about $25.

- 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve, Sonoma: Fresh and lively with snappy acidity; nicely balanced and long on the finish; about $32.